"Key Concepts in Literary Theory" provides authoritative and precise definitions of the most significant terms and concepts currently used in psychoanalytic, poststructuralist, Marxist, feminist, and postcolonial literary studies. The volume also presents clear discussions of the main areas of literary, critical, and cultural theory, supported by bibliographies and a chronology of major thinkers. Accompanying the chronology are short biographies of major works by each critic or theorist.

This revised edition of this comprehensive reference includes definition for more than seventy new terms and concepts, from Absurdism and Aga Saga to Writerly texts and Zeugma; a broader selection of classical rhetorical terms; an expanded chronology with a wider historical and cultural range, from Immanuel Kant to G.W.F. Hegel and bell hooks; and richer bibliographies including key texts by major critics.